From Cyber Threats to Drone Killings, Experts Convene at UVA Law to Discuss National Security Law

Professor John Norton Moore, director of the Center for National Security Law, teaches a class Monday on the use of force in international relations as part of the 21st annual National Security Law Institute at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Leading national security legal scholars, experts and government officials are gathering at the University of Virginia School of Law for the 21st annual National Security Law Institute, a two-week course that will explore topics such as terrorism, intelligence, cyber threats, detention, domestic surveillance and wiretappings, targeted drone killings and more.

"The seminar trains professors and government officials in the field of national security law," said Professor John Norton Moore, director of the Center for National Security Law. "Over the years the seminar has become the preeminent training center in the field of national security law, training officials from countries all over the world while maintaining its focus on training American professors and government officials."

The institute begins with an interdisciplinary focus on international relations theory, Moore said, then moves to the most important areas of international law and concludes with the U.S. law concerning national security.

Each year the institute admits approximately 25 to 30 participants, including professors of law and political science, as well as government attorneys working in the national security community.

"Every year the government of Canada sends a group of Canadian national security lawyers to participate in the program, and following the 9/11 attacks the FBI sent many of its 50 newly hired participants from the National Security Division to the seminar," Moore said. "When the Department of Homeland Security was established, we trained many of their lawyers. Since the institute was established in 1991, we have trained lawyers from every U.S. government department and agency with national security responsibilities along with foreign government attorneys from six continents."

This year's course instructors include: R. James Woolsey, former Director of Central Intelligence; Robert M. Blitzer, former chief of the FBI's Domestic Terrorism/Counterterrorism Planning Section, who will teach a course on domestic terrorism; Stewart A. Baker, former assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, former general counsel of the National Security Agency and distinguished fellow at the Center for National Security Law, who will speak on cyber threats to U.S. national security; and Frederick Hitz, a distinguished fellow at the Center for National Security Law and a former inspector general of the CIA. (Full schedule)

The institute is not open to the public and only some events are open to the media. For more information, contact Brian McNeill, director of media relations at UVA Law.